We are about getting your film discovered, says MovieSaints COO Anupama Bose

MovieSaints, which styles itself as the online box office for curated independent films, has tied up with the twentieth edition of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) to stream the festival's films online and make them available for audiences across the world.

MovieSaints is a 360° distribution solutions provider for independent films with its own p-VOD (premium video-on-demand) service.

Eschewing the subscription model followed by most other OTT (over-the-top) platforms, MovieSaints follows a pay-per-view model.

Chief operating officer Anupama Bose said, “The thing that really sets MovieSaints apart from every other platform is that it is so homegrown, there are certain things that are available only with us. There is a digital fingerprinting that we do, which is specific to every buyer, which means if you buy a film to watch today, in any case you can’t download it, but even if you [manage to] do or you record it on your phone or something and put it out, that digital fingerprinting allows me to trace it right back to you and then we send a legal notice. And we have done this. It’s between the pirates and us and we are very very anal about that because at the end of the day, you are working with independent films, which is such a small world, and if even that is compromised, it’s so unfair.”

Piracy, of course, remains one of the foremost concerns for filmmakers as they contemplate the efficacy of online platforms.

The unique model of MovieSaints enables independent filmmakers to maximize their reach and monetization potential. Having been a producer herself, Bose is well aware of the challenges, not just in making an independent film, but also in marketing it and looking at avenues for its release and maximum reach.

“We are about getting your film discovered," she said. "After that, I want you [the filmmaker] to make that big sale to a Netflix or Amazon or anybody who is buying your film. I really feel that if you have it in you to wait for your film to be built into a certain identity, work with us on that and get it discovered.”

In addition to building an audience for independent films and increasing their discoverability, MovieSaints has features like geo-blocking and fluid pricing that have made it a natural fit for virtual festivals like NYIFF, which the platform is currently hosting.

Speaking about the flexibility that filmmakers get with geo-blocking in particular, Bose said, "With NYIFF we have done this. All the shorts are [available] worldwide, but the features are not, and I understand that some of them [films] are yet to be released in Canada, so they won’t want their films to be available there.

"This was the best thing about working with NYIFF. If we had a facility, they were willing to embrace it. With us the technology exists where we can geo-block, it also exists for filmmakers. We are not anal about getting all territories.” This allows filmmakers to pick the regions where they want their films to be made available on the platform.

The NYIFF films are being streamed on MovieSaints from 24 July through 2 August.